


Heroes Never Die

by TechnoLichy



Series: Overwatch: Untold Stories [1]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-03
Updated: 2016-08-03
Packaged: 2018-07-29 03:14:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7668010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TechnoLichy/pseuds/TechnoLichy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mercy attends the memorial service of Jack Morrison.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heroes Never Die

The stone was gray and cold. It sat alone on a hill in Indiana. The stone stood in the form of a fallen hero, unyielding as the man himself. The funeral was long and emotional. There were many speakers all of whom had much to say. Through all of it she sat rigidly to exude false strength, it wouldn’t do for her to fall to pieces now. Not in front of so many people who needed heroes more than ever.  
The mourners slowly left, many offering their condolences to her. She politely accepted them but hardly heard a word. It seemed to take hours for all the familiar faces and public figures to file through the lines and leave flowers at the stone’s feet. Even when the people who were closest to her tried to talk to her all she could do was smile and nod.  
Then suddenly she was alone with the stone. She walked to it and allowed her fingers to trace the name engraved in it. It was a name she didn’t use in private, and only with ‘captain’ in front of it for the public.  
“Do you remember when we first met?” She asked staring up at the stone face. “You came into my hospital fending off nurses and patients trying to get autographs...you caught my eye through the crowd and made your way to me with such purpose. You said ‘Dr. Angela Ziegler? The world needs you.’” She chuckled dryly and turned to lean her back against the stone.  
“I lectured you, I would never join a group that is dedicated to violence. I would never help wars be fought. You said ‘Overwatch is committed to preventing violence and to saving lives. We are the heroes this world needs and the world needs you.’” She slowly slid down the stone until she was sitting on the ground. She wrapped her arms around her knees and rested her forehead on her arms.  
“I told you that war took my parents from me, that there was nothing heroic about war. I told you that your hands were soaked in blood and no justification would ever see them clean. That I would not bloody my hands like you. You looked at your feet and said you were sorry about my parents and I thought I’d won.”  
“Then you said ‘We are not heroes because we fought the omnics. We are heroes because we give the world something to aspire to. We show the world that it can be a better place if we work together. How many lives do you think you could save all over the world in places that have no one else fighting for them? We’re not heroes because we fight, we’re heroes because we are there when we are needed most.’”  
Hot tears streamed down her cheeks and she raised her head until it rested on the stone.  
“You were my hero Jack, I need you more than ever. Where are you now?” She sobbed now. No restraint, finally releasing the grief she’d been holding on since the explosion in Switzerland. 

In the treeline, a tall figure covered in bandages and a leather jacket shook with his grief as his own tears boiled over cuts that would scar him for the rest of his life. His modified hearing picked up every one of her words. He leaned on a tree, fist squeezed so tightly around a branch that it creaked in protest. He could not let her endure this pain. But he could only make it worse by revealing himself.

At the stone, she began to calm her sobs, unable to continue to cry. She stood up, and for the first time read the inscription on the stone. “Jack Morrison, CPT Overwatch, Our fallen hero” She laughed and opened her bag to take out her lipstick and wrote over the plaque.

She walked down the newly paved path that led to the memorial and saw a welcome sight. Reinhardt had waited for her. She walked to him and he wordlessly embraced her, she returned it and held him for what felt like a long time.  
“He was a great man, I wish...”  
“Me too.” she interrupted. He nodded and they slowly release each other. She looked into his eyes and thought they might be as red as hers surely were. “Will you accompany me back to Switzerland?”  
“Of course!” Reinhardt said with a falsely cheerful grin. “Bridgit is waiting for us at the airport.”  
“Still dragging that poor girl around the world with you?” she said with an equally false smile. She walked around the large black car Reinhardt had driven to the funeral and got into the passenger seat. She barely noticed that the car had begun to move.  
“I can’t believe he’s gone. I know Overwatch had begun to crumble but…” Reinhardt said breaking her out of her revelrie.  
“He’s not gone.” she said matter of factly.  
“True, his spirit is still alive in us.”  
“No I mean he isn’t dead.”  
“Angela…”  
“We didn’t find a body! We found Reyes despite everything but we didn’t find him! He’s out there!”  
“Angela...we didn’t find a body but we found plenty of his blood. If he didn’t die in the blast he surely died of his wounds...Heroes aren’t immortal.” He looked at her concerned but compassionately, he knew she didn’t want to call off the search. She fought to keep the chase going but nothing was ever going to come of it.  
The silence between them lengthened and Reinhardt began to wish he’d said nothing. He was about to begin an apology when she cut him off before he started.  
“It’s funny...you reminded me of something he said all the time whenever I lectured him about taking so many risks. ‘You’re no use to anyone if you’re dead!’ I used to shout out at him as I stitched him up time after time.” She looked away from Reinhardt and out the window. “He would just smiled at me and say ‘Please Angela….Heroes never die.’”

The bandaged man stood in front of the stone, glaring at it’s face. Eyes damp from having to watch Angela mourn. He punched the stone as hard as he could and cracks formed through it. Fresh blood seeped through the bandages over his freshly split knuckles.  
“How could you let this happen? How could you let what you believed in die in front of your very eyes?” He growled bitterly, his voice gravely and unrecognizable to him. “How could you lose sight of your goals? How could you lose sight of the ones you loved….”  
He looked at his knuckles knowing they’d heal sooner than later, and finally noticed something written in a familiar shade of lipstick underneath a patronizingly patriotic plaque. It broke his heart to read. He remembered saying those words to Angela so many times over the years. It hurt so much to know she had so much misplaced faith in him. Who he used to be. Heroes never die.  
“I’m sorry Angela…. I’m not a hero….Not anymore.”  
He stood and walked away from his own memorial, letting the hero Jack Morrison die at last. All that was left, was a soldier.


End file.
